Uber Completes Milestone Deal With Drizly
Uber Technologies Inc. has completed its acquisition of Drizly, North America’s largest alcohol delivery service, for around $1.1 billion. The deal consists of approximately 18.7 million newly issued shares of Uber common stock, plus cash.
Boston-based Drizly is designed to be fully compliant with local regulations in more than 1,600 cities across 33 U.S. states. It partners with retailers to bring their shelves online, helping them to reach new customers, tap into key market and customer insights, and diversify their business to grow sales.
“Uber Eats and Drizly are truly the perfect pairing,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of San Francisco-based Uber. “As we invest in expanded offerings in our delivery business — from grocery and convenience stores to a wide variety of retailers — alcohol remains a key driver of demand from consumers in the U.S. On the Uber Eats app, searches for alcohol items have spiked by 200% in the last year alone. By joining forces with [Drizly CEO Cory Rellas'] talented team, we can accelerate our shared trajectory by introducing Drizly to Uber consumers and expanding its geographic presence in the years ahead.”
Uber revealed in February that it was buying Drizly as part of its effort to diversify the range of products available through the Uber Eats service. According to the company, Uber has $88 billion in annualized run-rate gross bookings across all platforms and 101 million monthly active platform consumers.
"I'm incredibly proud of the team at Drizly for all the work that's gotten us here today. We've spent the last few years building the infrastructure to bring this category online," said Rellas. "Today is the start of another chapter, and we couldn't be more excited about becoming a part of the Uber family. With their platform, technology, scale and expertise, we will accelerate our mission of becoming the go-to place for alcohol – anytime, anywhere, for any occasion. We look forward to the journey ahead in continuing to create the consumer experience we all deserve in beverage alcohol."
Drizly will now become a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber. Over the coming months, Drizly’s marketplace will be featured within the Uber Eats app, while also maintaining a separate Drizly app and web experience.
To celebrate the completion of the deal, Uber and Drizly are offering $5 off purchases made on Drizly through Oct. 17, with the promo code PAIR at checkout.
Alcohol has become a hot commodity in the e-commerce biz. For example, Jokr recently revealed its foray into delivering alcohol in 15 minutes or less to New York metro-area customers, while DoorDash has facilitated the delivery of beer, wine and spirits via the DoorDash Marketplace, allowing customers across 20 states and the District of Columbia to order these adult beverages for delivery or pickup from thousands of restaurants, grocery stores and retailers.
